Ballads of Barry Allen
by Penn Flinn
Summary: 7: Killer Frost and Dr. Light survey the city that's under their thumb. (Linda/Caitlin)
1. Whammied

**As little breaks between more substantial stories, I thought I would create a place to post the little drabbles I write on my Tumblr. These are often angsty, and almost always the result of some kind of prompt.**

 **The first is a tag to 1x22 "Rogue Air," so spoilers for that episode.**

 _ **Prompt: "What happened doesn't change anything." Cisco and anyone.**_

* * *

Caitlin blinked, disoriented, as the flashing lights pulled away. The first thing she registered was that she had a killer headache, though for a few seconds she couldn't remember why.

"You with us?" The lights were replaced by Cisco's concerned face. "I mean…you're not still all…mind control angry, are you?"

"Oh, God," Caitlin said. The memory flooded back at once, and she covered her face with her hands. Peering above the car. Making eye contact with the meta. Then…oh, God. "I got whammied?"

"Yeah." Clearly relieved, Cisco set down the device he'd used to restore her to a more reasonable state of mind. Then, hesitantly: "What do you remember?"

She struggled for a few seconds. Maybe she should lie–but, then, she'd never been a very good liar. Besides, Cisco could read her like a book. "Technically…all of it? It's hazy, but…"

In the corner, Joe cleared his throat, causing Caitlin to start. She hadn't even realized he was there.

"I'll leave you two here, if that's okay," he said. "If you're good, I'm going to go check on Barry."

Cisco nodded at him. "Thanks."

The detective, never very good at hiding his awkwardness, sidled out of the room, leaving Caitlin and Cisco alone. Caitlin shifted on the hospital bed while Cisco fiddled with the light device.

"Is Barry okay?"

"He's fine," Cisco assured her. "I think his pride is damaged more than anything."

"I know the feeling," Caitlin said with a groan, rubbing at her eyes. When Cisco didn't respond, she slid off of the bed. "Cisco, I'm really sorry. I didn't mean any of what I said."

"You did," Cisco said without looking at her. "The whammy just amplifies what's already there. But it's fine. Really."

"It's not fine," Caitlin said. She swallowed. Of course, he was right, though she didn't want to admit it to herself. It was a part of her she kept purposely out of the light. "Cisco, we've talked about this. You know that I don't blame you for what happened with Ronnie that night when the particle accelerator exploded. It's just that…all of this is complicated. Human beings are irrational. We think and feel irrational things. But I swear to you, I know in my heart that you did the right thing."

"I don't blame you for being angry," Cisco said. He finally met her gaze, and his eyes were deep with that persistent sadness that had plagued them the past few weeks. Though she hadn't confronted him about it, she'd noticed. "You were justified tonight. And I understand if you don't want to…I don't know." Just as quickly as he'd met her gaze, he shied away, moving back to his work.

"What happened tonight doesn't change anything," Caitlin said firmly. She moved toward him and put a hand on his shoulder. "Hey. You're one of my best friends, Cisco, and one of the bravest men I know. But if you think I could give up on you that easily, you're not as intelligent as you look."

Cisco paused, considering the hand on his shoulder. "I'm sorry," he said. His voice broke, and Caitlin took in just how exhausted he looked. "It's just hard. All of this."

"I know." With that, she pulled him forward into an embrace, and they stayed like that, motionless, for a few seconds. Caitlin closed her eyes, trying to blink the past few hours out of existence, hoping even as she felt Cisco trembling that he could do the same.

He gripped tighter, and she wondered how long they could stay like this: clinging tight in an embrace, trapped in the past, knowing and fearing the moment of breaking apart, the moment where they would have to meet each other's eyes once more.

* * *

 **Thanks for reading! I'll be posting a few more of these over the next couple of days until I catch up with my queue. Feel free to leave a comment below if you enjoyed it!**

 **Till next time,**

 **Penn**


	2. Stitches

_Prompt: "Didn't you see what I did?" with Joe and Barry. Slight AU/spoilers for 2x05 "The Darkness and the Light."_

* * *

"How's it going?"

Barry winces as Caitlin pulls through another stitch. "Funny you should ask. Who would have guessed taking a bullet could actually be painful?"

Joe shuffles closer. "I'm sorry."

The bullet in question, dug out from Barry's shoulder, sits in a plain metal dish on the side table beside red-stained cloth. Barry, quite pale, motions at the similarly-bloodied blue button-down draped nearby.

"I really liked that shirt."

"Please, Barry, don't joke."

"I think I have the right to do whatever I want," Barry says. "I mean, you did shoot me."

Joe leans against the doorframe, hands shoved in his pockets. "I thought you were faster than a speeding bullet."

"Yeah, well, maybe I'm not faster than three speeding bullets." Barry's face tightens at another stitch, and Caitlin apologizes quietly. She's deliberately not making eye contact, retreating into awkwardness, but Barry can't delay this conversation. "Three shots, Joe? At an unarmed man? With no questions?"

"Again, I'm sorry," Joe says, but this time his eyes light up. "But it's Harrison Wells—and the last time I saw that man, he was murdering my partner. At this point, it becomes instinct."

"An instinct to shoot blindly," Barry says bitterly, and maybe he wouldn't be so bitter if he didn't have a hole in his shoulder, but right now he's pretty sick of bleeding. "I thought you were a good cop."

"I—" But Joe stops himself before he can finish his potentially-regrettable retort. He stares at Barry, who squirms at another pull of thread. His look softens. "I probably deserved that. I'm so sorry, Barry."

Barry feels the anger receding, already embarrassed by his previous statement. "I didn't mean that. I swear."

"Didn't you see what I did?"

"Obviously," Barry says, but it's lighter this time. "Not that I don't appreciate the whole 'let's shoot Barry' thing. What I mean is—I understand."

"Pretty damn stupid jumping in front of a guy like him, anyway."

"Instinct," Barry responds. "Like you said." He pauses. The throb in his shoulder dulls as Caitlin steps away. "Maybe I take after you in the irrationality department."

Joe takes this with a chuckle, moves to the bedside. "At least you didn't shoot your own son today."

"True," Barry says, and he shifts. "And believe me, you won't be hearing the end of this for a long time."


	3. Please Stay

**3: "Will you stay with me until I fall asleep?" Barry and Caitlin share a moment in Barry's recovery room after he wakes up from Zoom's attack. (2x06 "Enter Zoom")**

 _ **Prompt: "I'm right here. I'm not going anywhere." Barry and Caitlin.**_

 **Enjoy!**

"Please, he needs rest," Caitlin said. "I swear, you can smother him as much as you want once he's stable enough to take it. Right now, sleep is the best thing for him."

Joe, Iris, and Cisco were perhaps still too scared to protest further, still convinced that any wrong move might send Barry back into that place where his life hung outside of his body. They filed out of the recovery room amidst half-hearted teary farewells, promises of movies and smoothies and return visits. On his way through the door, Joe grasped Caitlin's hand, enveloped it in his own.

"Thank you," he said sincerely. "Thank you."

There was nothing else. The door closed behind him, and Caitlin and Barry were left in relative silence. Caitlin busied herself immediately, checking Barry's bandaging again and fiddling with a few knobs on the oxygen machine. Barry sank back into his pillows, exhausted. It had only been an hour since waking up, but there were dark circles carved under his eyes. His eyelids were rimmed pink.

"Caitlin," he croaked.

Hands trembling, Caitlin fidgeted with his neck brace. "I'm serious," she said. "You need rest. You need to heal."

"I'm not going to heal," Barry said. "Am I?"

"Don't be silly." She adjusted his sheets, careful not to jostle his legs, not to draw attention to the elephant in the room. He'd managed to keep himself together fairly well as the visitors had filled his room, but she saw now that he was damaged. He didn't cry, perhaps didn't have the energy to cry, but his face hollowed, crumpled. "We'll fix this. You know we will."

"I was sure I was going to die," Barry said. "I never really knew…what that felt like. Until it happened."

Caitlin was thrust back into that cortex, frozen at the computer bank, watching her best friend choke up blood as he dangled two feet from the ground.

She would never say it, but she'd been sure, too. She'd been sure he was going to die.

Instead of speaking, she sat down in one of the chairs beside his bed and put her face in her hands.

"Cait," Barry mumbled. "Will you stay with me until I fall asleep?"

Caitlin lifted her head, looked at Barry where he lay like a broken doll. His eyes drooped over his sunken face. He was already gone, already slipping back into the oblivion that Caitlin could only imagine.

Still, she reached across to the bed and took his hand.

"I'm not going anywhere," she whispered.


	4. Denoument

**4: Barry succumbs to the wounds left by Zoom's attack, and Caitlin and Cisco are left reeling. (2x06 "Enter Zoom." Character death.)**

 ** _Prompt: A fic where Barry dies after Zoom's attack._**

* * *

The dart fired, and Barry dropped. Everything happened so fast, Caitlin had no time to react to what was certainly a significant moment in the conflict. All she could see was Barry, hitting the floor, lying motionless. Then a rustle of wind, and emptiness.

"Barry." She sprinted forward, her heel skidding on her desperate run around the desk. In her periphery, she dimly registered that Wells was screaming, but her own internal screams were far louder. In front of her, Barry lay broken.

She'd known it was over the minute she saw him fall on the computer monitor. Through the grainy video feed, she'd seen the way his body contorted unnaturally, and on her other monitor she'd seen the vitals spike, plummet. She'd known, then, that they'd lost. But she hadn't confronted it until Barry hung from Zoom's grasp ten feet away from her.

Kicking into instinct, she placed both hands over the most immediate of Barry's wounds, the stab wound in his chest. Judging from the blood that trickled out of the corner of his mouth–almost indistinguishable from the dozens of other blood streams that snaked across his face–there was severe internal damage. He'd been stabbed, too, by the dart designed for Zoom: not a good sign for his healing factor, which she might have otherwise relied on to restore the possible damage to his lungs.

As blood bubbled up through her fingers, pooled around her hands, she began vocalizing her prayer. "Stay with me, Barry. Come on. Stay with me." She knew he could hear her. She knew it. If he could just listen, he would hang on, he could fight past the brokenness that threatened to take him away, he could resurface from this new hell.

She didn't know how long she stayed like that, trying to staunch the bloodflow, knowing deep down that the wounds below were far worse. Not even when Cisco tossed her his jacket did she pause. Not even when the jacket was soaked through and Barry's heartbeat slowed to nothing.

She had to be pulled away by Cisco, who was so dumbfounded by shock that he couldn't even explain to her that what she was doing was no longer working. She tried to fight him, but he understood something she didn't–he understood what she, as a doctor, couldn't. She couldn't pull away, couldn't believe the sudden drop in temperature around her.

And, despite the uselessness of it, she couldn't stop her screaming.

"Barry! _Barry_!"

The world melted around her as her best friend in the world bled out the last of his life, and her hands on Cisco's shirt, her sobs into his chest as they both collapsed together, didn't feel real.

"I should've done something more," Cisco said hollowly. "It shouldn't have happened like this. This is wrong."

His own mantra faded into nothingness as he succumbed to the shock. His voice was insubstantial, and days later the two of them would look at each other and try to remember what was said, what was done.

For now, nothing in the world felt real, and perhaps that was for the best. Even the ache in Caitlin's chest, which grew to such capacity that it threatened to burst out of her, wasn't fully recognizable as pain until hours later.

Not until she sat in an uncomfortable chair, alone, with her friend's lifeless, beaten, broken body on a table in front of her. Not until she watched the news reports, clawing at screens with her eyes for last selfish glimpses of her friend as a living being, however damaged. Not until she bunched up the red suit in her hands, knowing immediately that she would burn it in the morning.

Not until then did she understand that she would be crippled by the pain of it.

* * *

 **I just wanted to say thank you for the wonderful responses to the last chapter! This is all I have in terms of drabbles right now, but more may be coming soon. Thanks for reading!**

 **Penn**


	5. Parallel

**5: Cisco confronts Wells about his meeting with Zoom. All of this feels far too familiar. (Post-2x09 "Running to Stand Still")**

 _ **Prompt: "Always willing to take one for the team, aren't you?" Cisco + anyone.**_

 **Enjoy!**

* * *

It all feels too familiar, Cisco thinks, and it's not fair. He's all for good parallelism—hell, he cries openly at the end of the last _Harry Potter_ movie—but there's only so much a guy can take before he goes crazy. He feels the chill as he stands there between the speed cannon and Wells, and he wills himself not to tremble.

"How did you find out?" Wells says, and he's not angry, exactly, but his face goes rigid.

"Ever heard of security footage, dude?" Cisco says. And he's angry. He's livid. "I've been monitoring this speed cannon ever since your sorry ass showed up without us knowing." He takes a step forward. "What were you doing with Zoom?"

"Don't get involved with things you don't understand," Wells says. "Save yourself the trouble. And the pain."

"I don't know about you, but I'm best friends with a speedster who could come down here in a second's notice and kick your sorry butt into the next dimension," Cisco says, even though he's realizing now that he left his phone upstairs. What an idiot. "If I were you, I'd start talking."

Wells pauses. Takes a slow, measured step forward. He has the uncanny ability to reclaim power—even with one step, Cisco feels his sense of control slipping away. The urge to run builds, but he forces himself to hold his ground.

"Zoom has made a bargain with me," Wells begins slowly. "My daughter for Barry's speed. My job is to make Barry faster, more powerful, so Zoom has more to…feed on."

Cisco's stomach flips, and he is once again thrust into the cortex, Zoom dragging an unresponsive Barry by the neck, a hunter dragging his prey home.

"When were you planning on telling us this?" Cisco asks coldly. "We've been trying to help you, you know."

"If Barry knows…if anyone knows…" Wells shakes his head. "If Barry knew why I was making him faster, he would get himself and my daughter killed. _Nobody_ can know." He takes another step forward, his gaze hardening. "Believe me, this isn't easy on me. If I could have it another way—"

"Yeah, always willing to take one for the team, aren't you?" Cisco snaps. "Listen, you don't scare me, pal. If you want to work together to stop Zoom, fine. But if you're planning on hurting Barry, if you don't tell him about Zoom—"

Cisco can't finish, because suddenly Wells is in front of him—oh, God, how could a non-Reverse-Flash Wells still be so fast?—and a hand on his chest forces him backward into a wall. Cisco gasps at the impact and everything's happening so quickly and he is pinned there by Wells' hand and he is rendered speechless by Wells' eyes.

"Nobody can know, Ramon." Wells' voice has a new edge to it, a sharpness. "Do you understand what I'm saying?"

Cisco swallows. He does. There are flickers of tears in the other man's eyes, and Cisco understands now how dangerous desperation can make a person. His mouth goes dry with terror, and he knows he's not vibing, but the scene flickers around him like a disjointed memory anyway.

Mostly, he feels Wells' fingers pressing hard against the center of his chest, over his heart, digging into his skin with enough pressure to bruise.

"I will do _anything_ to save my daughter," Wells says darkly. " _Anything_. Do you understand?"

Cisco's heart hammers.

* * *

 **Thanks for reading!**


	6. I Don't Mind

**6: Sometimes Iris is Linda's personal superhero. (Iris/Linda)**

 **Prompt: Flarrow Femslash Week Day 1: Fake/Pretend Dating (Parkwest)**

* * *

"What's a pretty girl like you doing here without a date?"

Linda rolled her eyes and took another sip of her water. "No thank you."

The man, one of those I-think-I'm-cool-in-this-snapback types, leaned on the bar counter and grinned. "How about I buy you a drink? No strings attached."

"I said no thank you." Linda turned pointedly away, swiveling in her seat so she was facing the dance floor. The man, however, persisted.

"You don't even have to give me a dance or nothing. Just a drink. I don't like to see you sitting here without a drink."

"I have a drink." Linda held up her water.

"What's the issue?" the man said, and, boy, if he didn't stop soon, Linda was ready to put her new stilettos to good use. "You here with someone?"

The truth— _No, but I would like to be able to go alone to any bar I damn well please without being hit on by creepy-ass bros_ —was right on her tongue when she spotted a familiar figure walking toward the bar. Iris, decked out in a stunning maroon dress and leather jacket, caught her eye, registered, and moved closer. Without thinking, Linda seized the opportunity. And seized Iris' hand.

"In fact, I am here with someone," she said loudly, eyes perhaps a bit too wide as she stared at Iris and willed her _play along, for the love of God_. "I'm here with my girlfriend. So, if you don't mind, we'd like a little space."

Without another word, Linda dragged Iris further down the bar counter until they were a sufficient distance away from the bro. When Linda chanced a look down at him, he was glowering at the bartend.

"Okay—what?" Iris' mouth was still hanging open as they took their seats, staring out at the flashing lights of the dance floor.

"Sorry, had to think on my feet," Linda said. "Dude was hitting on me like you wouldn't believe."

Finally Iris broke into a laugh. "Congratulations." When Linda slapped her arm with her free hand, the laugh receded. "Sorry, sorry. I'm glad I could be of help. I don't mind one bit."

She looked back to the dance floor, the lines of her face highlighted by bursts of purple, green, blue. Linda watched her face change with each color, watched her eyes soften and her cheeks darken.

"Are you here with anyone?" Linda asked at last.

Iris shrugged deliberately, coyly.

A few more seconds. A few more heartbeats.

"That guy's gone," Linda said slowly. "We're…still holding hands."

Iris angled toward her, and her lips tugged upward at the corners. "I don't mind _one bit_." Her fingers tightened around Linda's. "Want to dance?"


	7. Dark Lipstick

**7 - Killer Frost and Dr. Light survey the city that's under their thumb. (Linda/Caitlin)**

 _ **Prompt: Flarrow Femslash Week Day Two: Partners in Crime AU (Earth-2 Caitlin Snow/Earth-2 Linda Park)**_

* * *

"They're pathetic, aren't they?"

"Oh, I don't know." Light examined her nails pointedly, her back to the street. The railing of the balcony pressed into her spine. "But I suppose you wouldn't be called Killer Frost if you didn't have some disdain for humanity."

"All of them desperate," Frost continued. "All of them running. From what?"

"Us, probably." Light looked sideways. Frost was leaning against the railing, her pale fingers curled around the steel and turning it glittery with ice. "They should be afraid of us, right?"

Frost paused, her pale eyes flickering. Then she faced Light, dark lips twisting. "Terrified."

Light's heart skipped. "We make pretty good partners."

"Partners," Frost repeated silkily. "As I remember it, you spent our last date in the bank vaults while I was putting everyone else on ice."

"That's usually how it goes, isn't it?" Light said. "You do the dirty work while I grab the cash?"

"I suppose," Frost said. "But sometimes you just need chaos for chaos' sake."

Linda tried to remain impassive, but her brain was clouding the closer Frost got. The noises of the busy street below them, the cars and the people and everything else, melted away. All at once she got the feeling that she was at the crest of a new world, levitating in a sky full of unlimited potential, her feet high above things that had once wrongly held importance. Orange streetlights and painted roads—they were so far below her that it was hard to believe she'd once belonged to that world.

Frost leaned further, and Light's breath was sucked completely away, her cool demeanor shattering under the rhythm of her heart. "I can make you great," Frost said, her voice hardly a whisper. "With time, we can be…glorious."

The last word washed over Light in one cool breath. She wasn't sure who made the final move, but suddenly they were crashing into one another, icy lips sparking together, ripples like tingling menthol cascading down their skin. Goosebumps erupted down Linda's back, but her heart pumped fiery blood and kept her going, kept her reaching for more.

When they broke away, Frost's lips were still curled into a grin. Her fingers left trails down Light's cheek and tangled briefly in her hair, and Light felt the exultation of her promise— _I can make you great_ —thrumming through her bones. Frost tipped her head toward the street. "Why don't we go give them something to be terrified of?"


End file.
